Racism suit stirs questions by event organizer

Promoter Alexis Hunter never understood why McFadden's Restaurant and Saloon in Old City abruptly canceled her popular midweek bash at the bar, "Alternative Wednesdays."

"It was very special," she said of the events, which drew between 400 and 800 people during the typically slow summer. "But it ended in a very, very, very bad and mysterious way."

Now, Hunter, 24, is considering filing her own lawsuit against the bar after the Daily News reported yesterday that a McFadden's bartender sued the establishment, on 3rd Street near Willow, for racial discrimination.

"It's still confusing to me," she said, "but now I'm kind of understanding why we were put out of there."

In his lawsuit, bartender Michael Bolden claims the bar's dress code, which includes no excessively baggy clothes, white T-shirts, hoodies or athletic jerseys, was just part of a pattern of racial discrimination.

After Hunter's Alternative Wednesdays began to bring many "nonwhite" patrons to the bar, management took steps to end the event, Bolden claims.

Cited in the suit are text messages allegedly between the bar's general manager, Walt Wyrsta, and the Wednesday-night manager, Kathryn Killian, including one from Wyrsta that read, "We don't want black people we are a white bar!"

Bolden's attorney, Laura Mattiacci, declined to say how the texts were obtained. In a written statement, Bolden, 29, who is still employed at McFadden's and who also works as a lawyer with Community Legal Services, said a "culture of exclusion" exists at bars, including "dress codes, marketing or policies by the security staff."

"The one constant is that it is often subtle, behind the scenes and typically, not written down. And therein lies the problem: How do you challenge a system, since it seems one cannot even prove it exists," Bolden wrote. "Well, now I can. I feel a sense of moral obligation to take a stand."

Hunter said she approached the bar in April about holding a Wednesday-night event. She said that a McFadden's manager told her they were getting only 50 patrons in the bar on Wednesdays at that time and that she told them she'd bring in 200.

On peak nights, there were as many as 400 to 800 people attending the event, she said.

Hunter said she overlooked little things that now seem to fit the pattern of discrimination Bolden referred to in his suit.

Among them, she said, was the way she heard staff sometimes characterize her event.

"People would call up and say 'What's going on tonight? Is it gay night?' and they would say, 'No, it's black night,' " Hunter said.

She estimates that her event brought the bar "a good 30 to 40 grand a month," and there was never any trouble, so she was shocked when Killian abruptly canceled the event in a phone call on Aug. 9.

Hunter said Killian told her that an incident had happened on a Saturday night that closed the bar down and was somehow related to the Wednesday-night event.

"I think the incident was bogus; I think they made it up," Hunter said.

Hunter said she was informed two days before one of her events that it would be canceled, then found out that Wednesday that the bar was closed.

"It makes me think, 'Did they really not want us in there that bad?' " she said. "This is a whole new generation. I wish people would get over this crap.

"If I was Caucasian and I owned McFadden's and I had an African-American bring me $30,000 more a month, you know what I'd say? 'Hell yeah! You're staying!' "

Employees at McFadden's said yesterday that no one was available for comment, including the managers named in the suit. A representative of East Coast Saloons, McFadden's parent company, based in New York City, said no one was available for comment, and a message left for a company attorney by the Daily News was not returned.